10 comments:

That's about the same level as South Carolina's lieutenant governor Andre Bauer, who likes to use the analogy of "feeding stray animals makes them breed" when advocating the restriction of free lunch for parents who don't attend parent-teacher conferences.

Hey Little Sister, can I borrow your soap box for a related topic? Today all 24-hour Walgreens across the country (not all stores, just the 24-hour stores) will offer free blood glucose screenings from 11 am to 7 pm. Pass the word.

This is NOT one of those urban myths; I work for the company. Here's the press release from one of our executives:

"I wanted to alert all our team members across the company to an exciting program we’re kicking off tomorrow with one of the most powerful voices in television to promote awareness of diabetes. The Oprah Winfrey Show, airing tomorrow, Feb. 4, has dedicated its entire hour to Type 2 diabetes. At the end of the show, Oprah will announce that all 24-hour Walgreens and all Take Care Clinics will offer free blood glucose testing this Friday, Feb. 5, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., to determine if people are at risk for diabetes. Combined, this includes more than 1,700 points of care.

In addition, from Feb. 6-18, select Walgreens stores in thousands of communities nationwide will be holding free testing events in an effort to heighten diabetes awareness. Take Care Clinics are offering free blood glucose testing throughout the month of February.

With the number of diabetes cases nationwide increasing 90 percent over the past decade, diabetes has become the fastest-growing disease in the United States. In fact, it’s estimated more than 6 million Americans are unaware that they are currently living with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association."

If you live in the U.S. there's a Walgreens somewhere nearby. Folks can go online at Walgreens.com or call 1-800-WALGREENS to find the nearest 24-hour store. I don't usually put on my "Corporate America" hat but this is a huge health issue, it affects everybody (but especially the AA and Latino communities), and it's FREE.

I'm just marveling at her castigation of (her perception of) food stamp recipients' junk-laden diets coupled with her advice to teenagers to work at McDonald's because they'll feed you during your shift.

One of the problems is that these people have bought the the myth that all poor people are black. So they think they can say stuff like this and it only includes blacks. Well I am here to tell them that there are a lot of poor white people in this nation.

These folks are also supposed to be Christians. Jesus said whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me. They need to here this.

Yes, there are trifling poor folk( ask anyone taken in by Bernie Madoff and they will tell you there are trifling rich people as well. Most poor people are really hard working and need some help because wages are too low.

Which is policy legislators put down to keep people poor. So if you vote for policy to keep people poor then you shouldn't turn around and ask people why they are poor. A great deal of poverty problems link right back to the "minimum" wage issue. If the gov would stop being so pro business and become more pro people and do the right thing then we could move forward on this issue.

A local organization recently hosted an advocacy event related to improving school lunch. Here were the comments on the media coverage, in this supposedly 'progressive' town:http://www.topix.net/forum/source/santa-cruz-sentinel/TBGLRBUM8D4ORSG7QUntil people grow up, get over their Ayn Rand fixation, and realize that not a single one of us is prosperous as the sole result of our own bootstrap-pulling (not to mention that kids don't deserve to go hungry for any reason, but that's another story), you'll continue to have this level of retrograde Reagan-era commentary going on in even the 'progressive' places..